Ruby RVM Notes
Ruby is an interesting language, but can be a bit frustrating with the many versions and incompatibilities. My main use is for working with Jekyll or Ruby on Rails.
On Windows I always use RubyInstaller, which seems to work well.
On Linux, I have tried the version in the distro repositories (Ubuntu: ruby-full), but this is usually fairly out-of-date and can cause some headaches (such as requiring sudo to install gems, unless you edit your bash profile, see Jekyll Ubuntu install docs).
On Ubuntu 19.10 ruby-full will be version 2.5.1, and updates are rare.
A better, easy alternative is to use the official Ruby snap package maintained by the Ruby core team which stays up-to-date.
Install using sudo snap install ruby –classic (note: the -classic flag means the snap will not be “confined”, since Ruby will need full access to your system to function. Snaps requiring -classic are audited by the repository).
The snap will keep itself up-to-date, so may change versions on you.
You may need to install additional build tools as well (at least ` build-essential zlib1g-dev`).
However, you might want to use a Ruby version manager to keep your dependencies in order and separate from your system Ruby. I have used RVM described below–however, more recently switched to using rbenv (see rbenv notes).
When installing RVM on Ubuntu there can be some barriers because the way RVM functions isn’t compatible with the default set up of Gnome terminal–either you can reconfigure, or do a little workaround by setting up a second terminal.
Set up RVM on Ubuntu
Install curl and build-essential if you don’t have them (sudo apt install curl build-essential).
Set up Tilix:
- Install Tilix terminal emulator (
sudo apt install tilix) - Open Tilix
- Click on the user name above the terminal window, select Profiles > Edit Profile.
- Click on Command tab, check “Run command as a login shell”
- Close Tilix
Open Tilix and install RVM using the official instructions (note: there is a PPA for Ubuntu that can take care of everything).
Install a Ruby version, probably the most recent stable (listed on Ruby downloads), for example:
rvm install 2.7.0.
This will download all the dependencies and build the Ruby version, which might take awhile…
When it completes, check your Ruby, ruby -v.
If this is your first version, it will become the default, or you can select one, rvm use 2.7.0.
If you want to generate the documentation, run rvm docs generate-ri.
Now you can install Jekyll: gem install bundler jekyll
Once you restart your system, Gnome terminal will recognize your current Ruby version. Use RVM from Tilix.
Intros: